Driving down the highway on a road-trip, my girlfriend and I got into a conversation about yoga.
The subject can be somewhat touchy. Some say there’s nothing wrong with yogic stretching and meditation, while others vehemently disagree.
I was in the audience when a Catholic speaker explained that movements of the body are spiritually neutral. In other words, movements such as stretching the body this way or that has no spiritual significance whatsoever.
Next to me at the table where I was sitting was a woman who could barely hold her tongue. One of her close friends had gotten into yoga and over several months, her personality changed from being a peace-filled, loving Christian, to something altogether volatile and unpredictable.
As I considered what the speaker had said about movements being spiritually neutral, I thought about my own return to the Catholic faith. I had relearned that Catholicism is a faith of the senses: taste, touch, sights, smells and sounds. It involves our bodies because our souls are one with our bodies.
Along with the “things” involved with the Mass, such as the Altar, Tabernacle, Ciborium and Chalice, Incense, Vestments, etc., our worship involves our bodies. Sitting, kneeling, standing are all movements that are not incidental. We don’t just stand up because we’re tired of sitting or about to fall asleep. We stand to show reverence. We kneel to show worship. Genuflecting is specifically the right knee all the way to the floor next to the left heel, as we focus on the Tabernacle. Likewise, folding our hands symbolizes prayer. Crossing ourselves is a prayer in itself, claiming ourselves for and in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. During the act of contrition, when we put our right fist to our left breast, we proclaim our “grievous fault.”
Movements do have meanings and just because we are not educated in the meanings of the movements and methods of meditation of Yoga, doesn’t mean they don’t have meaning or that we are not participating in something that subjects us to something spiritually dangerous.
Not long after I heard this Catholic speaker, I happened on a program on EWTN called On Location which shows recordings of speakers on different subjects. On this program, Adam Blai an exorcist for his diocese discussed Yoga, among other things. He described how doing a particular kind of yoga can open oneself to a demon entering the spine and eventually causing uncontrollable movements and vocalizations.
Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCf7JJ4w0dc
Just because we in the West don’t give any credence to such spiritual activity, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen or isn’t there. It does and is because it is more real and permanent than our own flesh and blood. It is nothing to take lightly or mess around with. Whether we are aware of it or not, it is idolatry and a sin and should we persist, we will first lose ourselves, then eventually our souls because of it.
